Robert E. McClernon - "That Which Isn't Flint Is Tinder, and the Whole World Sparks and Flames" (August 14, 1983)
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Transcript
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(piano and singing) | 0:03 | |
(joyful organ music) | 8:12 | |
(choir singing) | 10:10 | |
(cheerful organ music) | 12:06 | |
(organ and choir together) | 12:56 | |
- | Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you | 19:07 |
from God, our creator, and Jesus Christ, | 19:10 | |
our redeemer in the faith. | 19:13 | |
You did not come, oh God, to judge us, | 19:17 | |
but to seek what is lost, to set free | 19:21 | |
those who are imprisoned in guilt and fear, | 19:25 | |
to save us when our own selves accuse us. | 19:28 | |
Take us then, as we are, with all our sinful past, | 19:33 | |
let us pray. | 19:38 | |
We confess our creator, that we do not live | 19:52 | |
as you would have us live. | 19:56 | |
We put our trust in things that perish, | 19:59 | |
we treat our possessions as achievements | 20:02 | |
rather than as your gifts to us. | 20:05 | |
Taking pride in what we attain, | 20:08 | |
we scorn those who have little. | 20:11 | |
Not trusting fully in your sustaining love, | 20:13 | |
we endeavor to make a name for ourselves. | 20:17 | |
In our frantic desire to produce and to amass, | 20:21 | |
we sacrifice our health, our families, | 20:25 | |
our natural world. | 20:28 | |
Forgive us, oh God. | 20:30 | |
Help us to see the madness of our ways. | 20:32 | |
Cause us to put our lives in order, | 20:35 | |
that we may live as your faithful people, | 20:38 | |
showing forth your grace to all of the world. | 20:41 | |
In Christ's name, amen. | 20:45 | |
Wait for the Lord, be strong, | 21:14 | |
and let your heart take courage. | 21:17 | |
Yea, wait for the Lord. | 21:19 | |
In the name of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. | 21:21 | |
Let us then give thanks, for God is good, | 21:26 | |
and God's love is everlasting. | 21:29 | |
Thanks be to God, whose love creates us. | 21:32 | |
Thanks be to God, whose mercy redeems us. | 21:36 | |
Thanks be to God, whose grace leads us into the future. | 21:40 | |
We welcome you this beautiful summer Sunday morning | 21:46 | |
here in Duke University Chapel. | 21:49 | |
It is now the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, | 21:52 | |
and our hope and prayer for you | 21:55 | |
is that your spirit will be nourished this day | 21:58 | |
in the abounding love of God, our maker and creator. | 22:01 | |
We are very pleased this morning to have | 22:06 | |
as our guest choir the Hilltop Singers, | 22:09 | |
the adult choir from the Elizabeth Memorial | 22:14 | |
United Methodist Church in Charleston, West Virginia. | 22:17 | |
We have enjoyed their gifts of music among us | 22:21 | |
during the prelude time, and we look forward | 22:24 | |
to their gift of music to us during our service | 22:26 | |
of worship this morning. | 22:30 | |
I would also like to welcome members of the band | 22:33 | |
of Northeastern High School | 22:36 | |
from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. | 22:38 | |
They are on tour and have chosen to come | 22:40 | |
and worship with us today here in the chapel. | 22:43 | |
Our guest preacher this morning is no stranger to Durham, | 22:49 | |
and many of you have appreciated his gifts | 22:53 | |
and strengths in ministry in our community | 22:56 | |
for many years now. | 22:59 | |
The reverend Robert E. McCurnin is senior minister | 23:02 | |
of the Watts Street Baptist Church. | 23:06 | |
As some of you notice during our procession | 23:09 | |
where we were singing All Creatures | 23:12 | |
of Our God and King, our guest preacher | 23:15 | |
bore a puppy who came into the chapel. | 23:18 | |
So his warmth and his presence attracts many people | 23:22 | |
and many creatures, and we are grateful | 23:26 | |
for that joy and warmth that he shares with us. | 23:29 | |
He has been a strong leader and mentor of faith | 23:34 | |
for many of us in this community. | 23:38 | |
We are glad that his congregation is sharing him | 23:41 | |
with us this morning. | 23:44 | |
We look forward to the word, and the prophetic message | 23:46 | |
he will bring. | 23:49 | |
The sermon title for this day is That Which Isn't Flint | 23:50 | |
is Tinder, and the Whole World Sparks and Flames. | 23:56 | |
- | Let us pray. | 24:10 |
Oh God, who according to the promise of Jesus, | 24:15 | |
your son, did send the spirit of truth to your people. | 24:18 | |
Grant that the spirit may teach us all things. | 24:22 | |
Guide us into all truth, open to us the scriptures, | 24:25 | |
and take the ways of Christ, and show them to us, | 24:29 | |
for your name's sake, amen. | 24:32 | |
The lesson from the Old Testament is from Exodus, | 24:40 | |
chapter three, verses 1-6. | 24:43 | |
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, | 24:50 | |
the priest of Midian. | 24:54 | |
And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness, | 24:55 | |
and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. | 24:59 | |
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him | 25:02 | |
in a flame of fire out of a midst of a bush. | 25:04 | |
And he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, | 25:08 | |
yet it was not consumed. | 25:11 | |
And Moses said, I will turn aside | 25:14 | |
and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. | 25:17 | |
When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, | 25:22 | |
God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses. | 25:25 | |
And he said, here am I. | 25:29 | |
Then he said, do not come near. | 25:31 | |
Put off your shoes from your feet, | 25:34 | |
for the place on which you are standing | 25:37 | |
is holy ground, and he said, I am the God | 25:39 | |
of your father, the God of Abraham, | 25:42 | |
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. | 25:45 | |
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. | 25:48 | |
The lesson from the Epistle | 25:55 | |
is from Paul's letter to the Romans. | 25:58 | |
The first chapter, verses 18-23. | 26:01 | |
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven | 26:07 | |
against all ungodliness and wickedness | 26:10 | |
of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. | 26:13 | |
For what can be known about God is plain to them, | 26:18 | |
because God has shown it to them. | 26:21 | |
Ever since the creation of the world, | 26:24 | |
his invisible nature, namely his eternal power | 26:26 | |
and deity has been clearly perceived | 26:30 | |
in the things that have been made. | 26:33 | |
So they are without excuse. | 26:35 | |
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God, | 26:38 | |
or give thanks to him. | 26:42 | |
But they became futile in their thinking | 26:44 | |
and their senseless minds were darkened. | 26:47 | |
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, | 26:50 | |
and exchanged the glory of the immortal God | 26:53 | |
for images resembling mortal man, | 26:56 | |
or birds, or animals, or reptiles. | 26:59 | |
Here ends the reading from the Epistle. | 27:02 | |
(choir and piano together) | 27:48 | |
- | Will you please stand for the reading of the gospel? | 31:35 |
The gospel lesson is found in the book of Matthew, | 31:45 | |
chapter six, verses 19-24. | 31:49 | |
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on Earth | 31:55 | |
where moth and rust consume, and where thieves | 31:58 | |
break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves | 32:01 | |
treasures in heaven, where neither moth | 32:05 | |
nor rust consumes, and where thieves | 32:08 | |
do not break in and steal. | 32:10 | |
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be, also. | 32:12 | |
The eye is the lamp of the body, | 32:17 | |
so if your eye is sound, your whole body | 32:19 | |
will be full of light. | 32:22 | |
But if your eye is not sound, | 32:24 | |
your whole body will be full of darkness. | 32:27 | |
If then the light in you is darkness, | 32:29 | |
how great is the darkness? | 32:32 | |
No one can serve two masters, | 32:35 | |
for either he will hate the one and love the other, | 32:38 | |
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. | 32:42 | |
You cannot serve God and mammon. | 32:46 | |
And here ends the reading from the gospel, amen. | 32:49 | |
(organ and choir together) | 32:54 | |
- | The claim I want to make | 34:07 |
is that there is a word from the Lord for everyone, | 34:10 | |
including God's dogs. | 34:17 | |
There is even a word from the Lord | 34:24 | |
for those of us who sometimes | 34:26 | |
think that God has nothing to say to us. | 34:30 | |
That the real truth about us | 34:37 | |
is that we are either the abandoned | 34:38 | |
or the neglected step-children of God. | 34:43 | |
I think there are some of you here this morning | 34:51 | |
who feel that way about yourself. | 34:56 | |
It is to you that I want to offer | 35:02 | |
this word of the good news of the gospel. | 35:06 | |
Just as I offer it to myself. | 35:11 | |
It is a word to those of you, | 35:16 | |
who as I do, define yourselves | 35:19 | |
as the once born and unspoken to. | 35:22 | |
The people for whom every day with Jesus | 35:28 | |
isn't sweeter than the day before. | 35:32 | |
Those of us who have been scarred | 35:37 | |
by what the late Walter Lippmann | 35:39 | |
once called the acids of modernity. | 35:43 | |
And made semi-blind and semi-deaf | 35:48 | |
by the sights and sounds of day, after day, after day | 35:53 | |
in which there was not even a glimpse | 35:58 | |
of the tip of an angel's wing. | 36:01 | |
Nor a whispered monosyllable from the holy one. | 36:05 | |
There is even a word from the Lord for people like us. | 36:12 | |
It is a gracious word, | 36:21 | |
it is a welcoming word, | 36:25 | |
it is a surprising word. | 36:29 | |
It is also a word that is not | 36:33 | |
at all obvious nor easy to hear. | 36:36 | |
This word for God's dogs | 36:43 | |
is found in the third chapter of the book of Exodus. | 36:50 | |
And in these words, about those words, | 36:55 | |
words written by Brevard Childs. | 37:00 | |
The initial encounter between God and Moses, | 37:05 | |
writes Dr. Childs, reflects a remarkable mixture | 37:09 | |
of ordinary elements of human experience | 37:16 | |
and the extraordinary. | 37:19 | |
Because I have on occasion | 37:25 | |
been reminded that I am not spiritual enough. | 37:30 | |
And because I enjoy so many of the sights | 37:36 | |
and sounds and sensations of this world so thoroughly, | 37:40 | |
I am encouraged, I take heart | 37:46 | |
by that phrase, ordinary elements of human experience. | 37:51 | |
God comes to Moses. | 37:58 | |
The holy one of Israel and Jesus Christ | 38:02 | |
becomes involved in the life of that moment. | 38:05 | |
In a setting created by a mixture | 38:10 | |
of ordinary elements of human experience, | 38:14 | |
and the extraordinary. | 38:17 | |
And what does that mean? | 38:22 | |
Well it means quite simply | 38:23 | |
that what transpired between Moses and the Lord | 38:26 | |
did not take place in a prayer meeting. | 38:30 | |
It did not occur on a high spiritual plane. | 38:33 | |
Moses was not walking in Zion | 38:41 | |
when he received his word from the Lord. | 38:46 | |
He was walking instead | 38:52 | |
in an ordinary setting in what for him | 38:56 | |
was a ho-hum things-as-usual kind of day. | 39:01 | |
As the story puts it, most matter-of-factly, | 39:08 | |
one day while Moses was taking care | 39:13 | |
of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, | 39:16 | |
the priest of Midian, he took the sheep | 39:21 | |
across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain. | 39:26 | |
And that's it. | 39:32 | |
No 24 hour prayer vigils beseeching the Lord | 39:35 | |
to save the soul of murderer Moses. | 39:40 | |
No sounds of ravishing celestial music. | 39:48 | |
No Sunday pomp and circumstance. | 39:55 | |
Instead, it was an ordinary day | 40:01 | |
and a man doing what for him were ordinary things. | 40:05 | |
Again, according to Brevard Childs, | 40:12 | |
the verbal form of verse one of chapter three | 40:16 | |
of the book of Exodus emphasizes the continuity | 40:22 | |
in time with the past. | 40:28 | |
In other words, what Moses was doing on this day, | 40:31 | |
he had done on many others. | 40:35 | |
It was another in a long line of dusty, sandy days | 40:39 | |
spent looking after somebody else's sheep and goats. | 40:44 | |
It was the same kind of day as yesterday. | 40:51 | |
And yesterday had been the same kind of day | 40:57 | |
as the day before that, and the day before that | 40:59 | |
the same kind as the day before that, | 41:02 | |
and on and on, months on end. | 41:04 | |
Same family, same set of in-laws, | 41:09 | |
same job, same pleasure, same worries. | 41:13 | |
And of course, the same thoughts | 41:16 | |
about everything always being the same. | 41:18 | |
Continuity is the picture. | 41:24 | |
With a little bit of monotony on the side. | 41:29 | |
Common, how very common, | 41:34 | |
and how much like life was your life, Moses? | 41:37 | |
Taken all in all, | 41:44 | |
says Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf, | 41:47 | |
it had not been exactly a day of rapture. | 41:50 | |
No, it'd not even been a day brightened | 41:54 | |
with happiness and joy. | 41:57 | |
Rather, it had been just one of those days | 42:00 | |
which for a long while now had fallen to my lot. | 42:04 | |
The moderately pleasant, wholly bearable and tolerable | 42:10 | |
lukewarm days of a middle-aged man. | 42:16 | |
It was on such a lukewarm day | 42:22 | |
in the life of a middle-aged man | 42:27 | |
that Moses looked up and saw one of the ordinary elements | 42:31 | |
of his human experience. | 42:39 | |
He looked up and saw a bush, | 42:42 | |
and the bush was on fire, | 42:47 | |
a common desert bush on fire, | 42:50 | |
except this one burned. | 42:54 | |
And it was not consumed. | 42:58 | |
And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight. | 43:01 | |
Why the bush is not burnt. | 43:08 | |
When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, | 43:12 | |
God called to him out of the bush, Moses, Moses, | 43:18 | |
there had been many bushes in the desert days of Moses. | 43:26 | |
I wonder how often in the past | 43:34 | |
one of those bushes had blazed up. | 43:41 | |
But he had not wondered about its flame. | 43:47 | |
And did not draw close enough to see it | 43:52 | |
for what it truly was. | 43:57 | |
Our lives are lived among bushes. | 44:04 | |
Ordinary elements of human experience. | 44:13 | |
The elderly neighbor from across the street | 44:19 | |
waves and smiles as she walks down the driveway | 44:22 | |
for her morning paper. | 44:26 | |
You meet a stranger with whom a reserved word is spoken. | 44:31 | |
The derelict clutches his brown bag | 44:39 | |
and weaves along the sidewalk in the cold, driving rain. | 44:43 | |
You type one more letter. | 44:50 | |
You sell one more of whatever it is that you sell. | 44:53 | |
You sweep the floor once more. | 45:00 | |
The wild bird sings joyously, and the tomatoes, | 45:04 | |
they grow silently. | 45:09 | |
You sit down at the dinner table with your family. | 45:14 | |
And you are nourished by affection and by food. | 45:19 | |
The evening newscast tells you of MX missiles | 45:27 | |
and the resumption of the production of poisonous gases. | 45:35 | |
And the increasing number of hungry people | 45:40 | |
in your own nation. | 45:44 | |
What are these things? | 45:49 | |
They are the common elements of ordinary experience. | 45:52 | |
Bush after bush after bush, | 45:57 | |
which dock the landscape of our lives. | 46:01 | |
And then one day, when you are talking with a friend, | 46:06 | |
or when you are grieving the death of a loved one, | 46:15 | |
or reading a book, | 46:21 | |
or playing with a baby, | 46:24 | |
you do something extraordinary. | 46:28 | |
You draw close enough to wonder. | 46:33 | |
You begin to wonder. | 46:41 | |
You wonder about that bush. | 46:44 | |
And in your wonderment, you come close enough | 46:51 | |
to see what had always been there for your sight, | 46:56 | |
but you had never seen. | 46:59 | |
And to hear what was always available to your ears, | 47:04 | |
but you had never before heard. | 47:09 | |
You see, that the bush is on fire with meaning. | 47:14 | |
And from out of that fire, a voice calls your name. | 47:23 | |
Could it be, | 47:33 | |
is it possible, | 47:36 | |
that God isn't as officially religious | 47:40 | |
as preachers make God out to be? | 47:44 | |
Could it conceivably be the case | 47:50 | |
that when the Lord comes, the Lord comes dressed | 47:53 | |
mostly in the clothing of every day? | 47:56 | |
That the holy is present in mundane sights | 48:01 | |
and sounds and people, and beagle puppies. | 48:05 | |
That the word of God's grace, | 48:13 | |
the word of God's mercy, the word of God's judgment, | 48:18 | |
is spoken continually in familiar language. | 48:22 |
- | Could it be that if and when | 0:06 |
you and I are able to see with the eyes | 0:11 | |
of our eyes and hear with the ears of our ears | 0:14 | |
that the bush, that common element of our human experience, | 0:20 | |
blazes up and is not consumed, | 0:26 | |
and from it, the Lord calls our name. | 0:29 | |
And the common things are made holy, | 0:35 | |
and the glory on them laid. | 0:38 | |
Is it conceivable that Brother Paul, | 0:44 | |
among many other witnesses, is right when he | 0:49 | |
insists so vigorously that ever since the creation | 0:54 | |
of the world, God's invisible nature, | 0:58 | |
namely God's eternal power and deity | 1:01 | |
has been clearly perceived in the things | 1:04 | |
that have been made, and that our problem, | 1:06 | |
those of us who are God's dogs, | 1:09 | |
that our problem is chiefly that of a lack of perception? | 1:12 | |
He sees many things as God's prophet, Isiah, | 1:20 | |
but he does not observe them. | 1:24 | |
His ears are open, but he does not hear. | 1:28 | |
If that is the case, it is a serious, | 1:33 | |
if not fatal flaw, for as the saying goes, | 1:39 | |
what you see is what you get. | 1:46 | |
It is true, isn't it, that you and I | 1:50 | |
generally see only what we want to see, | 1:54 | |
and truer still that we see only | 2:00 | |
what we have been taught is available for our sight. | 2:03 | |
Yes, that is the case with us. | 2:09 | |
For perception is far more a matter | 2:13 | |
of sociology than it is physiology. | 2:16 | |
You see and I see only what our class | 2:22 | |
and clan have taught us to see. | 2:29 | |
We hear what our teachers have taught us | 2:35 | |
is available for our hearing, | 2:40 | |
and we hear little more than that. | 2:44 | |
Rabbi Mendel once boasted to Rabbi Elimelech | 2:51 | |
that evenings he saw the angel | 3:00 | |
who rose away the light before darkness, | 3:03 | |
and mornings the angel who rose | 3:08 | |
away the darkness before the light. | 3:11 | |
Yes, said Rabbi Elimelech. | 3:16 | |
In my youth, I saw that too, but later on, | 3:21 | |
you don't see these things anymore. | 3:27 | |
I reluctantly agree. | 3:32 | |
Once, when I was young, very young, | 3:35 | |
and before I had been so carefully taught, | 3:44 | |
I saw a hawk soaring against a gray winter sky, | 3:52 | |
and it's wings, like the wings | 4:05 | |
of the great speckled bird, touched everything that is | 4:06 | |
and brought a unity to this whole world. | 4:15 | |
And once, when I was young, a Cardinal | 4:24 | |
on a snowy dogwood branch, and a great beauty | 4:31 | |
blazed and blossomed and filled that whole glade of wood, | 4:39 | |
and this whole Earth and my own soul with peace overflowing. | 4:48 | |
But I do not much see those things anymore. | 5:01 | |
A spade is now a spade, | 5:06 | |
and I know precisely what to call it. | 5:11 | |
A bird is a bird is a bird. | 5:17 | |
A tree is a tree is a tree, | 5:21 | |
and a bush... | 5:23 | |
Well, a bush is a bush. | 5:28 | |
And if one suddenly blazes out | 5:32 | |
with clean transforming fire, I will not eagerly run | 5:34 | |
to tell tell anyone about it, | 5:39 | |
for fear that I would be taken first | 5:43 | |
to an ophthalmologist and then to a psychiatrist. | 5:48 | |
Twentieth century shamans who have no place | 5:52 | |
in their mythologies for bushes | 5:58 | |
that blaze forth with the glory of the Lord, | 6:01 | |
but in the relative safety of these hallowed halls, | 6:10 | |
I will admit to you that there are still rare occasions | 6:17 | |
when a bush burns and is not consumed, | 6:26 | |
and I hear the Lord call my name. | 6:32 | |
One week ago this evening, I stayed | 6:39 | |
with my grandson while his mom and dad went visiting. | 6:43 | |
We put aside our romping and our reading | 6:56 | |
and went out into the yard and walked in the velvet night. | 7:04 | |
We heard the song of the cicadas | 7:16 | |
and the tree frogs, and the other wonderful | 7:19 | |
and mysterious sounds of a summer evening. | 7:25 | |
It was then that a bush caught fire. | 7:32 | |
Robert Thomas saw a star. | 7:39 | |
It was, I'm certain, his very first star. | 7:47 | |
His first star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. | 7:54 | |
He stopped his babbling. | 8:05 | |
His little face became filled with wonder, | 8:11 | |
and he reached up toward the star | 8:20 | |
as if to receive, and then he smiled. | 8:25 | |
We both smiled. | 8:33 | |
I should have taken off my shoes, | 8:36 | |
for there at the foot of Mount Horeb, | 8:41 | |
led by the wonder and the joy of a little child, | 8:50 | |
I was brought into the presence of the Holy One, | 8:57 | |
whose dwelling is the light of a million stars. | 9:03 | |
Yes, I know. | 9:12 | |
I know that my more intellectually rigorous friends | 9:16 | |
and those others whose theology, like their faith, | 9:25 | |
requires more slide-rule certitude | 9:30 | |
and memorizable prose than does mine, | 9:33 | |
will shake their heads wisely, | 9:42 | |
and mumble something about subjectivism and sentimentality. | 9:46 | |
So be it. | 9:53 | |
The bush did burn. | 9:58 | |
It was not consumed, and I heard the Lord speak my name. | 10:01 | |
There is a word from God for everyone, amen. | 10:12 | |
(organ music plays) | 10:29 | |
(choir sings along with organ music) | 11:12 | |
- | As the people of God, let us now affirm what we believe. | 13:48 |
We believe in God, who has created and is creating, | 13:53 | |
who has come in the truly human Jesus to reconcile | 13:58 | |
and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit. | 14:03 | |
We trust God, who calls us to be the church, | 14:09 | |
to celebrate life in its fullness, to love and serve others, | 14:13 | |
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified | 14:19 | |
and risen, our judge and our hope, | 14:25 | |
in life, in death, in life beyond death. | 14:29 | |
God is with us; we are not alone. | 14:33 | |
Thanks be to God. | 14:37 | |
The Lord be with you. | 14:40 | |
Let us pray. | 14:43 | |
O God, eternal spirit, so high above us | 14:58 | |
that we cannot comprehend you and yet so deep | 15:04 | |
within us that we cannot escape you, | 15:08 | |
make yourself real to us now. | 15:12 | |
In a shaken world, we seek stability. | 15:16 | |
In a noisy world, we need inner peace. | 15:20 | |
In a fearful world, we want courage, | 15:25 | |
and in a world of rising and falling nations, | 15:28 | |
we crave a vision of your eternal kingdom | 15:32 | |
whose sun never sets. | 15:36 | |
So, seek us out every one in the special circumstances | 15:40 | |
and needs that each of us faces, | 15:45 | |
for it is young and old that we come, | 15:49 | |
the glad-hearted and the bereaved, | 15:53 | |
families together here, and solitary souls | 15:56 | |
lonely and far from home, some of us tempted to be proud | 16:00 | |
of the world's prizes, and some crestfallen | 16:06 | |
because of failure, some strong in body, | 16:10 | |
and others striving to keep the inward person renewed | 16:14 | |
while the outward body is perishing. | 16:19 | |
O God of our help and strength, | 16:23 | |
be to us like the sun indeed, and shine this morning | 16:26 | |
into every window of our lives and souls. | 16:31 | |
While you comfort us, kindle also | 16:36 | |
within us sincere penitence. | 16:39 | |
Let some austere word of righteousness | 16:43 | |
be spoken to our consciences today. | 16:46 | |
Save us from our petty excuses, | 16:50 | |
our cheap defenses, our unworthy self-deceits. | 16:54 | |
Give us grace to be honest with ourselves | 16:59 | |
that we may rightly judge our dealing | 17:03 | |
with the personality that you have entrusted to us, | 17:06 | |
with the friends and family that surround us, | 17:10 | |
with the opportunities you have put before us, | 17:14 | |
and with the stewardship committed to us. | 17:17 | |
O God, we pray for the peace of the world, | 17:21 | |
for wisdom to seek peace and pursue it, | 17:25 | |
for faith and character to use aright | 17:29 | |
the powers that we have in our unworthy hands. | 17:33 | |
With thankful yet with burdened hearts, | 17:38 | |
we pray for your church. | 17:42 | |
Help us to maintain her strength, | 17:45 | |
seek afresh to understand and receive her gospel, | 17:48 | |
and make real to the ends of the Earth the salvation | 17:53 | |
that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. | 17:56 | |
Now may your spirit touch us all | 18:01 | |
with some healing wisdom and strength. | 18:03 | |
Kindle our faith, make sensitive our consciences, | 18:07 | |
dedicate our strength, fortify us in our troubles, | 18:13 | |
and send us out strong in the presence of you | 18:18 | |
and in the power of your might, | 18:23 | |
for it is in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray, | 18:26 | |
who taught us to pray saying Our Father, who art in heaven, | 18:31 | |
hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, | 18:37 | |
thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. | 18:41 | |
Give us this day our daily bread. | 18:45 | |
And forgive us our trespasses, | 18:48 | |
as we forgive those who trespass against us. | 18:50 | |
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. | 18:54 | |
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, | 18:59 | |
and the glory, forever, amen. | 19:02 | |
(organ music plays) | 19:50 | |
(choir sings along with music) | 20:10 | |
Open wide your hands, O God, | 26:57 | |
to receive these gifts of ourselves | 27:00 | |
and our service for your creation around the Earth. | 27:02 | |
In Christ's name we pray, amen. | 27:07 | |
(organ music plays) | 27:12 | |
(choir sings along with music) | 27:49 | |
And now may the God of peace and hope | 30:29 | |
fill you with all hope in the power | 30:33 | |
of believing, that you may abound in hope | 30:35 | |
by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen. | 30:39 | |
(choir sings) | 30:47 | |
(organ music plays) | 32:09 |